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Democrats want to take another look at the T-Mobile-Sprint merger
T-Mobile's planned purchase of Sprint is facing new and intense scrutiny from the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives. The executives of the two companies will sit before two congressional hearings this week -- House Committee on Energy and Commerce took up the topic on Wednesday and the House Committee on the Judiciary will question the company heads on Thursday.
Senator Al Franken asks iOS developers to provide "clear and understandable privacy policies"
Following up on requests he made to Apple and Google in his hearing on mobile privacy earlier this month, US Senator Al Franken wrote a letter to the companies' respective CEOs asking them to require all software sold through the App Store and Android App Market to provide consumers with "clear and understandable privacy policies." Franken conceded that most customers never read the legal notices packaged with apps or think to look for a privacy statement for each (or any) app they install. He added that privacy notices alone wouldn't address all of the senator's privacy concerns. Even so, he observed that Apple and Google are market leaders capable of taking this "simple first step towards protecting [their] users' privacy." Requiring each app to transparently disclose what information it collects, how the data is used and who it is shared with would help attentive consumers, privacy advocates and federal authorities better understand how mobile software accesses and uses personal information. The senator concluded by urging Apple and Google to, at a minimum, make privacy policies a strict requirement for all location aware applications, implying it would be more feasible to address his privacy concerns within a subset of all software offered through Apple and Google's app catalogs. After all, Franken's hearings followed a highly publicized bug in iOS that caused location data to be stored in an unencrypted file on the device. Apple fixed the bug in a recent software update. Finally, Franken reminded Apple and Google of their commitments to protecting the privacy of their customers. "Apple and Google have each said time and again that they are committed to protecting users' privacy," Franken wrote. "This is an easy opportunity for your companies to put that commitment into action." [via The Loop]
Apple and Google headed for round two with Senate privacy hearings
Following the first round of Senate hearings on privacy last week, representatives from Apple and Google will appear before the US Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance on May 19, according to CNET. In attendance for Apple will be Vice President of Worldwide Government affairs Catherine Novelli, while Google is sending its director of public policy for the Americas, Alan Davidson. Facebook is also attending this round of privacy hearings, sending its Chief Technology Officer, Bret Taylor. Microsoft apparently wasn't asked to attend. The hearing will address "consumer privacy and protection in the mobile marketplace," and unlike the first round of privacy hearings, the US Department of Justice isn't in attendance. No doubt the recent "Locationgate" controversy will be addressed in spite of Apple addressing it to a large extent with the recent iOS 4.3.3 software update. However, given that a representative from Facebook is in attendance this time, it's possible the hearing will focus on more generalized attitudes toward consumer privacy from the main pillars of the tech community. Google didn't appear to fare particularly well during the first round of hearings; its representative's repeated refrains of "openness" wound up being about the worst argument the company could put forward during a hearing on privacy matters. If the Senate chooses to focus on online advertising, particularly in light of recently introduced "do not track" legislation, both Google and Facebook may find themselves beneath a very uncomfortable microscope. That's not to say that Apple is entirely blameless in privacy matters, but with "Locationgate" largely out of the spotlight, it's possible Apple won't be the central focus of this next round of hearings.
The difference between Apple and Google at the Senate hearings
Earlier today, the US Senate judiciary subcommittee held a hearing on privacy, technology and the law. You can view a video of the opening statement by Senator Al Franken from today's hearings here. The purpose of this hearing was to aid lawmakers in understanding if current privacy laws around tech (which are quite old) are still valid or need updating. But what did Bud Tribble, an MD, PhD engineer and Apple's Vice President of Software Technology have to say versus Google's representative, Alan Davidson, who happens to be a lobbyist? Let's look at Apple's statements and answers to key questions, then cross-check with Google's answers. Apple First, the big question is whether or not Apple is "tracking you." In opening statements, Tribble pointed out (also in his written testimony) that Apple is "deeply committed" to protecting consumers' privacy, and Apple does not share personally identifying information with third-party vendors without explicit consumer agreement. As stated in a release on April 27, 2011, the company does not track you and never has had any plans to track your whereabouts. Instead, the location database is designed to provide a crowdsourced database of local Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular towers in order to provide a quicker method for locating an iPhone on a map faster than GPS would alone. This information is not used by Apple itself, but can be accessed by applications that happen to use Location Services. These services can be turned off, and last week, Apple fixed a bug which stored these on the computer you use to sync in an unencrypted way and which contained all locations. Tribble also mentioned that in the "next major version of iOS this data will be encrypted."
Apple's Bud Tribble will testify before Senate committee, says Franken
In the ongoing commotion around location, privacy and what your iPhone knows about what you did last summer, the witness list for upcoming Senate Judiciary subcommittee hearings on mobile privacy has been announced. Senator Al Franken's (D-MN) office told The Loop that Apple's VP of software technology, Guy L. "Bud" Tribble, will be there, along with regulators, privacy advocates and Google's VP of public policy. Franken invited the companies to send representatives to his hearing a couple of weeks ago, as the location issues were making news. Tribble has been on the hot seat before when it comes to Congressional oversight of digital privacy; he appeared at a similar hearing last summer, alongside Facebook's CTO and Google's lead privacy engineer. He's also one of the longest-serving Apple and NeXT veterans, and is credited with identifying the legendary Reality Distortion Field power of Steve Jobs. Perhaps he should borrow the field generator for his testimony. The hearings will begin on May 10 at 10 am Eastern time. If you're watching on C-SPAN, keep an eye on the senators as Tribble enters the room... the ones that recoil and run away are almost certainly Klingons.
